Benefit dinner dress

My synagogue is holding a fundraising event this Saturday night.  Yes, I do have other clothing that I could have worn.  I do however make my self clothing as a reward for getting work done. Working on a garment will often help me get the cobwebs in my head that are keeping me from properly completing my work.

My friend Sharry sews. Like me, Sharry lives in an apartment and has limited storage space.  Several weeks ago, a friend of Sharry’s died. Her friend was a reporter, a world traveler and loved fabric. Sharry inherited lots of wonderful fabric. Being a generous woman, she also shared some with me. one of the fabrics was this vintage gold lame’.

I thought it was a hoot.  I grew up in the land of preppie where gold lame’ was somewhat suspect, as something worn by women of loose repute. In the late 1960’s a proper lady might wear a gold lame’ shift, to say,, her synagogue benefit.

One would need to wear a bouffant hair do with the dress. I thought that it might be amusing to make a gold lame’ dress to my synagogue benefit. I was prepared to not make the dress, but my fried Sharry has been goading me into making the dress.  I used my funeral dress as the basic pattern. my funeral dress is an Evan Picone black wrap dress made in a poly crepe that I purchased at Fowad. Fowad , for those of you not from the Upper West Side of Manhattan was a a store that carried damaged dresses, things that didn’t sell, leftovers from bankrupted stores. I had seen Missoni dresses there as well as rejects from J.C. Penny. You just never knew what you might find there when you walked in. I have been wearing my funeral dress for the last ten years. The funeral dress is in great shape, but Fowad was a victim of gentrification. They have reopened a few blocks north on Amsterdam Avenue, with a new name but with no where near the terrific selection they once had.

Anyway, I used the funeral dress as my pattern. There are internal ties holding the dress together. I am using this huge and silly belt to hold the outside together. I still need to press the dress and properly hem it. I may wear bunch of crystal and pearl necklaces together to fill in the neckline.  I don’t own any funky heels so I will be wearing a pair of black cowboy boots on my feet.